What a historic week for women in men's football!
Yesterday, we told you about the first non-kicker girl to play NCAA football, Haley Van Voorhis, whose presence on the field was so distracting that the refs forgot what roughing the passer is.
If you haven't seen it, you've got to:
But yesterday, we had another glass ceiling shattering first when Leilani Armenta, a female kicker who was on the team thanks to a slew of injuries, showed up to kick off the game for Jackson State, a "historically black college."
Just... watch:
This clip is so hilarious, it almost feels like they wanted to cut the video before you could even see the kick.
Here's another angle:
Okay, I know what you're thinking, "maybe it was a perfectly executed squib kick" like they claim Sarah Fuller had at Vanderbilt.
But, no, this was just an awful kick. It went straight into the air and landed pretty much exactly 20 yards from the tee. Too short for a kickoff, too long for an on-side kick - in the sweet spot of awfulness.
For reference, a typical kickoff in this level of play will get close to the opposing goal line. And in Division 1, kicks routinely go all the way through the end zone.
This kick was about 40 yards short of that.
I am sure that Leilani is a fine women's soccer player. She seems like a serious athlete and probably has the strongest leg on the team - she even came back from a torn ACL, so props to her.
But while I don't want to harp on Leilani personally, it's important that we call out this celebration of "historic" inclusion of women competing in men's sports with actual clips of what that looks like - especially in contact sports like football - before we go further down the rabbit hole of madness.
Let's peep at some of the reactions to this stunning and brave act of heroism:
That just about sums it up.
P.S. Now check out our latest video 👇
